IRS successfully launches their own free Direct File - some of my fellow 'murcans are eligible

Why did this take the IRS so long where other nations have been doing this for decades?

I'm 100% for a simple IRS tax return but what the heck is with this?

To use Direct File, you need an IRS account with ID.me.

To get an ID.me account, you need to:

Take a video of your face

If you can't or don't want to take a video of your face, you can have a video call with an ID.me agent who will confirm that your face matches your identification.

Is that really necessary???

As a non US citizen this is just a Robin Williams in Jumanji moment...

WHAT YEAR IS IT?!?!

Anyways, welcome to the year of the interwebs.

Have you got rid of your cheques and faxes yet? 😉

Good stuff. Keep in mind that Intuit fought this for a very long time. But since they finally got stomped, the IRS can do it's thing now.

Good thing Intuit (TurboTax) is fighting so hard to keep the current format super slick and cheaper as a private service rather than a centralized government process. Right up there with disbanding garbage pickup in favor of individually contracted services because [checks notes] 7 overlapping truck routes will be cheaper than 1

Thanks Brandon

Honestly I'll hope reservations and congratulations till after we see how it goes, but the fact it's a limited pilot makes me optimistic.

Just a heads up it’s only available for the following states:

Arizona California Florida Massachusetts Nevada New Hampshire New York South Dakota Tennessee Texas Washington state Wyoming

If you aren't able to use this new system, a good second option is freetaxusa.com. Free for most filings and dirt cheap for more complex stuff. Also, they are easier to use than TurboTax.

Damn only like 20 years behind the rest of the world.

This is great for citizens!

I'm not sure they get bragging rights about a smooth site launch for a tax preparation application when most people don't even have their W2s yet...

We'll see whether this is another healthcare.gov when people actually try to use it, but this is a huge win for people who qualify.

I experienced true happiness for a moment. Only one moment.

why is it the US is hellbent on making everything a state by state issue but at the same time saying federal law is above state law in such cases like Texas but states with legal cannabis or states with legal abortion are allowed to be above federal

is the US the United States or not

make it make sense

Due to lack of public identity infrastructure, filing taxes online in Britain takes a long time. I mean, at least 10 minutes 😄

For anyone who has filed with it, how much does this return differ from using a company? Is your total return the same or can a tax professional get you back a significant amount more?

Congrats, Americans! It's a long time coming but still a huge deal and I'm happy for you all 😁

If you lived in a state not listed here, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory, Direct File won't support your tax filing needs.

lol I guess not for me!

If you lived in a state not listed here, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory, Direct File won't support your tax filing needs.

Ok so here in DC we don't get a voting representative, senators, or that free software other states get. Got it.

I don't think I'll ever be able to use it, since it doesn't list capital gains as a supported type of income

Unless that's also related to it being a pilot

Sadly it doesn't support reporting income from independent contracting (yet).

can't use it if i got my health insurance through obamacare? -_- fucking bullshit

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!

18F looking for tax filling help

Can someone with more knowledge than me explain how this might differ from Canada's system

Somebody think of the poor corporations!

How could they launch this and not support login.gov for the auth...

Internal American news, not interesting for the average user.

Although is it really that hard in USA? In Norway it is mostly automatic. I barely have to put in any effort

I don't understand the praise here. 1040EZ is about as simple as it gets, and it's free to file.